MAPS to Switch to Subscription-Based Services

Saying that it "can no longer afford to foot the bill" to help the Internet community control the flood of spam, Mail Abuse Prevention System LLC at midnight July 31 plans to eliminate nonsubscription access to its services and will begin charging fees for what it once offered for free or a low cost.

MAPS, Redwood City, CA, provides the Realtime Blackhole List, a list of Internet service providers that encourage or are neutral to companies that send or allow spam to be sent through their servers.

"When MAPS began to offer paid subscriptions, we believed that allowing access based on the ability to pay would allow the largest percentage of the Net to access the services while permitting MAPS to sustain itself with subscriptions from the large users of the services," the company noted. "What we have found instead is that we are our own worst competition."

Margie Arbon, MAPS' manager of market and business development, said that MAPS does not plan to eliminate its free services completely, particularly for individuals and nonprofit organizations. The company still plans to offer reduced-rate and some free query services, she said.

"No one will be turned away due to the inability to pay," she said. "We will manage to work something out. Those that can afford to pay are being required to do so."

She said most ISPs would end up paying about 5 cents per user, per year.

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